Five Nights at Freddy's
Five Nights at Freddy's is a 2014 indie point-and-click survival horror video game developed by Scott Cawthon. The game centers on the fictional pizza restaurant Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where the player must act as a night security guard, defending themself from the malfunctioning animatronic animal characters by tracking their movement through the facility using security cameras. Five Nights at Freddy's was first released via Desura on August 8, 2014. On August 20, 2014, after it was approved by the service's crowdsourcing platform Greenlight, Five Nights at Freddy's was also released via Steam. Ports have been released for Android and iOS. The game was praised by critics for being a unique take on the survival horror genre, with a particular emphasis on its simplistic design, along with how its gameplay mechanics and aesthetics contributed to an overall feeling of fear and paranoia. Five Nights at Freddy's was the top-selling game on Desura for the week ending August 18, 2014, and the game became the subject of a number of popular "Let's Play" videos on YouTube. The game's sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, was released on November 11. Gameplay The player must survive their shift, lasting from midnight to 6:00 a.m. (approximately 8 minutes and 36 seconds of real time, 4 minutes and 30 seconds on the mobile and tablet editions), without being attacked by one of the animatronic animal robots roaming the facility. The player, who sits in an office and is unable to move, is given access to a network of security cameras throughout the facility to track the movement of the animatronic robots. Four of the five characters have distinct movement patterns; however, most of the characters' movements take place off-screen. The camera feeds are dimly lit and distorted, one of the rooms only contains an audio feed, and the cameras do not cover certain areas of the building, most notably the two hallways directly to the left and right of the player. The player cannot leave the guard room, but can close the doors to defend themselves, and briefly turn on lights in the hallways to check for animatronics. Use of these actions consume the player's limited electrical power; if the power runs out, the cameras become inoperable, the doors open, and the lights go out, leaving the player with no defense against an attack. Once these things happen, music will play, it will go pitch black, and Freddy will jumpscare the player, losing the game. The game has five levels comprising five "nights" in the game, which increase in difficulty. Completion of the game unlocks an even more difficult 6th night level, and completion of this level opens up a "Custom Night" level editor where the player can adjust the AI difficulty of the individual characters. Plot The main character, whose name is later revealed to be Mike Schmidt, has started a job working as a night watch security guard at the restaurant Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (a pastiche of restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese's). A voicemail message left by Mike's predecessor explains that the animatronic animal characters used at the restaurant are able to roam freely around it at night, because if they were left off for too long, their servo motors would lock up. He also adds that the characters were no longer allowed to roam freely during the day following an incident referred to as the "Bite of '87", which apparently involved the loss of someone's frontal lobe. The employee warns the player that if one of the robots encounters a human, they will automatically assume that it is a robot that is not in costume yet, and "forcefully stuff them" into a spare mechanical Freddy Fazbear costume, killing them in the process. Newspaper clippings in the background of one of the scenes reveal that the restaurant was site to the disappearances of five children whose bodies were never found, after a man dressed as one of the animatronics (in the Golden Freddy suit) lured them into a back room, and was said to have murdered them. Later, the restaurant received complaints that the animatronics began to smell foul and became stained with blood and mucus around the eyes and mouth, with one customer comparing them to "reanimated carcasses". Development/Release Five Nights at Freddy's was first released via Desura on August 8, 2014. On August 20, 2014, after it was approved by the service's crowdsourcing platform Greenlight, Five Nights at Freddy's was also released via Steam. A port for Android was released on August 27, 2014, via Google Play Store. On September 11, 2014, an iOS port was released. The Windows Phone version was published on December 5. Television series A television series based off the game premiered on November 1st, 2014 as the first Cartoon Network Family original series. A spin-off, called Five Nights at Freddy's: The Nightmare, is expected to premiere on Vortexx Network in 2016. Sequels The prequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was released on November 11th, 2014, earlier than planned. The sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, was released on March 2nd, 2015. The final game, Five Nights at Freddy's 4, was released on July 23rd, 2015. Category:Five Nights at Freddy's